Friday, July 17, 2009

First of all, my Jekyll Island photos can be viewed here. Too much hassle uploading them all to blogger!

Second of all, I posted a ton of pictures on my other blog, in case you were interested!

We had a lot of fun at Jekyll Island, but things definitely didn't go as planned. First of all, we had planned on camping--rain prevented this. We ended up having to spend money on a hotel.

Downside? Expensive. Upside? We were right on the beach and could see the ocean from our room's balcony.

Since we were planning on camping, I had packed a ton of food to cook by campfire. Since we no longer had a campfire, that idea went out the window...but not before we tried to do some cooking at a picnic site. Again, we were very close to the beach (it's hard not to be on an island), but, alas, it rained. On our picnic. After we had already started to burn our small $6 bag of charcoal. Sooo, we waited it out. Luckily, it only lasted a few minutes....but then the wind picked up. A stead wind, which blew so strong it swept the mustard off my hot dog.

That was the last day we cooked out.

So, it was over priced restaurants the remaining days. We spent a fortune on just a few meals. That is a major downside to eating on an island.

While it did rain while we were there, it wasn't a sustained rain. It would rain for a few minutes, followed by long periods of slightly cloudy skies with brief peaks of sunshine. We were able to sight-see and even swam in the Atlantic Ocean.

By far, the highlight of my trip was a surprise encounter with some dolphins. I was walking the beach with my kids, when suddenly, some dolphins broke through the water in the distance. They swam closer, so close that if I were to jump into the water, I could swam to them. I shouted excitedly, "look kids! Dolphins!!!" They were so close! Such a great photo opportunity! I reached for my camera--and it wasn't there. It was back in the hotel room, in my husband's cargo pocket. :( What a fish story, huh?

Oh, and, I got pinched by a crab while swimming. Made my toe bleed! Damn crabs.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Don't have a picture, but know this: I am now growing my own vegetables. What is in my garden, you may ask? Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, basil, and parsley. I also have some icebox watermelons and sweet potato vines, but being an inexperienced gardener, I'm not sure how they will fair. The sweet potatoes are in a deep container, and the watermelon...well, let's just call this an experiment. I know the watermelons grow vines, which holds the fruit. Why not a container, then, and let the fruit rest on the patio? We'll see. If it doesn't work, I've learned a lesson!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

As some of you may (or may not) know, I'm part of an Etsy Street team which promotes sellers in the North Georgia Area. (The North Georgia Etsy Street Team) Every month we have contests and bios to promote our members. This month it's Miss Moose's turn! Check out the NorGA blog for her bio, and a chance to win a pair of earrings. How do you win? Simple--just go to her bio, leave a comment telling what you like about buttons. You could win!

Monday, July 13, 2009

It's a little late (okay, a lot late), but here is it is--what we did for the Fourth of July. (Jekyll Island show-and-tell is going to be later...)

As I've mentioned before, we spent our nation's birthday up at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, at my husband's step mom's sister's house. (We just call her "Aunt Kate.") She lives in a BEAUTIFUL house on a lake, and we are always excited to visit--Not just because she has a cool house and a private dock--she's pretty cool, too!! :-)

At any rate, it was my family (John, me, Sean, Aaron and Maggie), Grandpa Bob and Grandma Anne (John's dad and step mom), Tim and his girlfriend, Danielle (Tim is John's brother), and Kate. Great group of people to spend Independence Day with!

While we were there, we spent a lot of time in the lake. Below, Grandpa is wading in the water with Aaron and Maggie.

Kate has a lot of carp living under her dock. Here, she fed the fish with Aaron and Maggie.

Maggie shared some triscuits with me...

John's dad rented a party boat for us on the 4th.

The kids were a little...apprehensive.

Eventually, they started to have fun.

...and relax.Aaron even went tubing with Uncle Tim.

Those are Uncle Tim's feet.

There were many, many more pictures, but it takes so long to upload and rearrange the pictures on here, you'll just have to go to my flickr album to see the rest.